


You Don't Have to Worry About Me

by myblueworld



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 04:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10506327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myblueworld/pseuds/myblueworld
Summary: Alternate Universe.Leroy is a medical student, and he's worried that his favorite barista will die too young from lung cancer.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Taken from a Tumblr prompt:  
> You’re the health-conscious med student and I’m the chain-smoking art student who’s also your barista and you leave me notes on smoking and lung health on your napkins and also a 20-page essay on lung cancer tucked under your saucer

 

 _It’s going to kill him_ , Leroy ponders as he watches the barista exhaling circles of smoke from his mouth.

_He can’t keep on doing it. He’ll die. He’s too young to die._

Okay. Leroy knows that eventually, everyone will die anyway. And as a medical student, Leroy knows that it can take quite a while for someone to die from lung cancer.

But still.

_He’s too young, too pretty to die._

Sitting quietly on his chair, Leroy watches from the window next to him as Raheem throws the short remaining cigarette to the ground, and crushes it with his foot.

Raheem turns his head to look at the window, and catches Leroy watching him.

In a split second, a smile spread out on his face as he waves at Leroy. Leroy smiles back at him (because with that infectious smile, Leroy doesn’t think anyone can resist to smile too).

Feeling a funny fluttering sensation in his chest, Leroy ducks his head down, as if the lines in his notes are far more interesting than the view outside. But from the corner of his eyes, he can see Raheem walks away from where he was smoking. A few seconds later, Leroy can hear the bells above the door ring. Leroy carefully peek from his eyelashes. Raheem walks in, and makes his way to the counter. From where he sits, Leroy can only faintly hear the conversation between Raheem and John, the other barista in the coffee shop, without really catching what it is that they are talking about. But he can still see Raheem, laughing and smiling with the crinkles at the corner of his eyes. And that’s enough for Leroy. Just hearing that cheerful laughter, seeing that bright smile, it's enough for Leroy to feel better about everything.

*******

 

“Yo, Leroy! How is it going?” Raheem greets him with that sunshine smile.

Hoping that the crazy beating of his heart is not materializing into a reddening face, Leroy smiles.

“Nothing much,” he says. “Exam is coming, so…” he shrugs without finishing his sentence.

Raheem laughs. “You’ll survive, kid. You’ll survive” he says. His hand reaching out over the counter to ruffles Leroy’s hair.

“So, the usual?” he asks. The laughter remains as a smile on his face.

“Uh huh…” Leroy says. “And if you guys still have it, a roasted tomato and egg salad sandwich, please.”

“Ha!” Raheem’s smile gets wider. “We do still have it. I save one because I know that you’ll ask for that one.”

“Oh,” Leroy ducks his head down, biting his lip to hold himself from smiling.

 _He remembers_ , Leroy squeals internally in delight.

“Thank you,” Leroy says as he lifts his head up again.

“Let me get your sandwich first,” Raheem says, and turns around. He opens the glass cabinets where some of the food are kept.

Leroy waits in front of the counter. He awkwardly shifts his weight from his toes to the balls of his feet. He can see a pack of cigarette laying on the counter where Raheem is preparing his order.

“Here you go,” Raheem pushes a plate with the sandwich to Leroy. “And your coffee will be coming right up!”

“It can kill you, you know,” Leroy blurts out.

Raheem’s brows shoot up. His eyes dart from Leroy to the sandwich, then back to Leroy again. “What? The sandwich?” he asks, looking confused.

Leroy shakes his head. “No, the sandwich is fine,” he says. He clears his throat, and then gestures with his chin to the pack of cigarette on the counter. “The cigarette,” he explains. “It can kill you. You know, lung cancer and… others.”

Raheem stares at him. For a second Leroy is terrified, that Raheem is getting angry at him. For being nosy, messing up with something that is none of his business.

 _Oh, shit_ , Leroy curses himself quietly. _Now I become the typical nerd medical student, lecturing others about health issues_.

But then Raheem chuckles. Leroy is almost surprised to see that Raheem is now looking at him with a small smile on his lips. Like what Leroy just said has amused him.

“Too much coffee can also kill you, they say,” Raheem says. The right tip of his lips tugged up as he speaks. “And so is too much studying, I believe,” he adds, and chuckles again.

He keeps his eyes at Leroy. “Yet, you keep on coming back here, where you practically live on coffee as you go through your notes and books like they are your lovers”.

His face burning, Leroy quickly takes his plate of sandwich and mumbles his thank you. He quickly turns around and walks, he has to hold himself from running, to a vacant table.

From behind the counter, Raheem stares at Leroy’s back, still smiling.

 

*******

A couple of minutes later, Raheem places a cup of latte macchiato on the table. Still feeling embarrassed, Leroy doesn’t have enough courage to look up at Raheem. He determinedly keeps his eyes on the text book he’s reading as he mumbles a _thank you_.

“Hey, don’t study too much, okay?” Raheem says, and ruffles Leroy’s hair.

Leroy looks up, and Raheem is smiling softly at him. His eyes are smiling along with his lips.

“I don’t want you to die young from too much studying,” Raheem says, and pats Leroy’s shoulder lightly. He turns around, and leaves Leroy alone.

 

*******

Leroy glances at his watch. He chews his lip, thinking. Then he sighs, and takes a paper out from a folder in front of him.

He looks at the glossy colorful paper again. As part of a project, Professor Kolarov has asked the students to come up with something to communicate a health issue that the student can choose by themselves. Leroy has always enjoyed playing with some graphic editing program, so he decides to make a sheet of infographic about smoking and its effects on health.

Leroy takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. He glances at the counter. Raheem is sitting on a stool, fiddling with his phone. Leroy shakes his head and grabs his pen to write a short note on the top right corner of the infographic paper.

_I just don’t want you to die young from lung cancer_

He glances at Raheem again. Then he tucks the paper under the empty plate. Leroy stands up, slings his bag on his shoulder as he walks to the door. As he passes by the counter, Raheem lifts his head up. He smiles and waves at Leroy.

“Bye, Leroy! Don’t study too much, okay? It can kill you.”

*******

 

Raheem jumps off his stool when Leroy swings the door open and walks in.

“Yo, Leroy! Thank God it’s Friday huh?” he smiles at Leroy with that by-default-sunshine smile of him.

Leroy’s lips tug up into a smile too. It’s been a long day in school, where he just had a hard quiz. But that smile of Raheem somehow makes things a little brighter, and his chest gets a little lighter.

“So, the usual?” 

Leroy nods. He slides his hands into his pocket. “And a chocolate pastry, please.”

“Sure thing!” Raheem says. It only takes 2 or 3 minutes before he places a plate with the pastry on the counter.

Raheem pushes the plate to Leroy. “Hey, Leroy?”

“Hm?” Leroy’s eyes move from the plate to Raheem.

“You’re still have a lot of studying to do after this?”

Leroy shakes his head. “Nope. I’m giving myself a break tonight. Besides, it’s Friday,” he says, shrugging his shoulders.

“Oh, good,” Raheem says, half-grinning.

Leroy laughs lightly. “Why? Because you don’t have to worry about me dying too young from studying too much, at least for tonight?”

“No,” Raheem shakes his head, then fixes his eyes at Leroy. “Because I want to ask you out. For a date.”

Leroy gasps. For a moment, his heart forgets to beat. He stares at Raheem, too stunned to say anything.

Raheem is smiling slightly, but the look in his eyes is a gentle one. And Leroy can vaguely see an unspoken hope there.

His heart starts beating again, but this time in a ridiculous speed. Leroy clears his throat as he awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. He looks away to the window, as he feels the heat starts spreading on his face.

“Well,” he says as he slowly turns his head back, but keeping his eyes on the floor. “That… That actually…” Leroy stutters as he tries to speak. But when he lifts his head up, and sees Raheem is looking at him with a small soft smile, Leroy can’t help himself to smile back.

“That sounds nice,” he says.

Raheem’s smile turns into a grin. “Great. My shift finish in half an hour, okay?”

Leroy nods. “Okay.”

“Oh, and Leroy?”

“Hm?” Leroy arches an eyebrow, looking questioningly at Raheem.

“Don’t worry. I won’t smoke tonight. So you don’t have to worry about me dying too young from lung cancer, at least for tonight.”


End file.
